Smiles
by Blue-Beast85
Summary: Sora has faced a lot of challenges in the last two years, but he has a new one: figuring out this new smile that Kairi has. He thinks she is hiding something, but what?


It was funny to see her smile at me like that. She had never really smiled like that before, and especially not at me. It was weird to see it on her face. It was like a secret she knew about, but I didn't. It was even weirder that I had never seen that smile before until about a week or so before.

I've known Kairi since I was a little kid. We've played together, talked together, laughed together; we've grown up together! But, I have never seen Kairi like this.

Her smiles have always been bright, and she has so many different ones too.

I remember when I was young and climbed one of the many coconut trees that dotted our small island. I only climbed it to show off to her. I made it all the way to the top and she cheered me on the whole way. I was so proud that I decided to strike a pose. It didn't work out, and I fell out of the tree. Kairi was concerned until a couple coconuts hit my head at that point she was rolling over laughing. Later on she told me how funny I looked; she was still wearing that broad smile on her face. The headache I had didn't seem that bad compared to her smile.

Then there is her determined smile. She wore this smile when Riku was giving her trouble. I remember her wearing this one bravely when I caught up to her in the World that Never Was. I always thought it was one of her best smiles because it always gave into her victorious smile. She could always prove Riku wrong no matter what the circumstances. One of her best victories was when Riku bet she couldn't scare him. The look on his face was priceless when she acted like the ghost of the Secret Place. He wouldn't go in there for a week.

She also has that mischievous smile that would always get Riku and me into loads of trouble. All the parents would always think she was the innocent one, but they never saw her prank Mr. Yamamoto when we were twelve. We couldn't stop laughing for weeks.

But, then she has that fake smile of hers. It breaks my heart to see it. When ever she's down, she'll put up this fake façade to make sure that no one knows what's wrong with her. Like when she was depressed about the past she couldn't remember, she gave me that fake smile for five days before I asked her what was up. This is leads up to her lying smile. Her smile would get all nervous, and it would spread to her whole face. That was a smile easy to see through.

She's got hundreds more compared to the few I've named. The happy ones, the mock angry ones, the silly ones, the sad ones, and all the smiles in between, but I've never seen this one.

It always starts with a happy smile, but then it curves slowly. It is easy to see the warmth radiating off it, especially if you look at her eyes. They glow like stars and you can feel all her happiness, but it is more than just plain happiness, I know it is. I've known her too long for it just to be happiness; it's much deeper than that.

"Sora!"

I shook my head out of my thoughts. I searched the beach for the owner of the voice when I saw her. She walked towards me gently smiling like she always does. I scooted over a little, so that she could have some room on the Papou tree to sit. It was quiet; just us watching the sunset. From the corner of my eye, I saw her looking at me with that smile of hers slowly forming. My stomach got all fuzzy and I could feel my palms beginning to sweat.

I just began to stare back with a confused look on my face still pondering the meaning of this mysterious smile. Her laugh broke me from my thoughts.

"What are you staring at, Sora?"

"Your smile," the words just tumbled out of my mouth.

It was her turn to look confused, "What about it?"

I shrugged and let my feet dangle off the tree, "I don't know. It just seems different."

She smiled even brighter, "How so?"

I could hear the laugh in her voice, "It just seems different."

I received a light shove for my answer, "Come on Sora!"

"I've just never seen it before!"

She became a little more serious, "Is it really that different?"

I gave a quick nod while staring at my hands.

"What's it like?"

I sat up straight in surprise. She was asking me about her smile? I glanced over at her. She was twirling a strand of hair; she was nervous, she always did that when she was nervous.

"At first it's soft," I was surprised by the sound of my voice, and I think she was too. I didn't think I would have been able to talk, but here I was beginning to explain this new smile, "but then it slowly grows brighter and happier. Yet it is still really kind of soft like you're hiding it from me." I could see it slowly making its way onto her face. "Then your eyes have this spark in them that I have never seen before! And then I always give you this confused looked because I still have no idea why you have this smile. You always give this secret look like you know something I don't," I could see that look appearing on her face, "And overall I wish I knew what it was that was making you smile this way so I could make sure that it never goes always."

"Sora…" she whispered.

"…because I love that smile. It makes me feel so happy, and I want to see it everyday so I can always feel this way."

It was quiet for a bit. We were just gently gazing at each other. I watched her fiddle with her hair some more before her smile became even brighter. That's when she ruffled by spiky locks.

"Sora! You goof!"

She messed them all up, but with one run through with my hand they were back to normal, "What was that for, Kairi?"

Her smile softened, and she began to twirl her thumbs, "I didn't think you put this much thought into it."

"Come on Kairi, I would notice anything if it was about you!"

The words just slipped out of my mouth. I began to blush madly, and I tried to make up an excuse, but nothing would come. I couldn't bear to look at for a few minutes, yet when I finally did I was surprised. She didn't look at me funny, and she wasn't blushing like I was; she just had that mysterious smile on.

I leaned in a bit closer, to get a better look at it, "...there it is again…"

"Do you really want to know what it means?" she leaned in a little closer also.

I glanced up from the smile that graced her lips to her sparkling eyes. They were so bright and happy, but you could see the calm swirling in them. A silence hung between us as I focus on her. I had that feeling in my gut again, the one with the butterflies, but it slowly molded into a ball of warmth that spread to the rest of my body. I traced her features with my eyes before I once again locked eyes with her. Then I gave my answer.

"Yes."

It only took a second to feel her lips on mine. They were warm and soft just like her and her smiles. Her eyes were shut, and it didn't take me long before my eyes slid shut too and I began to kiss her. It was timid and slow, but I had never felt anything like it before. It just felt so right. When we finally stopped for air, the smile was, once again, up on her face.

"Does that answer your question?" her voice was barely above a whisper.

I nodded.

I could feel a slow smile growing on my face as a closed the distance between us once again.

"Whoa! Well ain't that a sight to see? It looks like the love birds are finally together!"

We broke apart immediately to see Riku starring at us with a broad smirk on his face.

"Well it's about time!" he began to walk closer to us, "I was getting worried that you both were to shy to buck up the courage to tell the other," I grabbed me around my neck and began to gave me a nuggie, "and now look at the happy couple."

"Arrgh! Riku!" I managed to break out of his grip and went chasing after him. I took a look back quickly to see Kairi giggling with that not-so-mysterious smile on. It only took her a minute till she, too, began to chase after us.

I am really glad I finally found out what that smile was, and it was worth it.

When she finally caught up, we had chased Riku out into the water. I was dunking him into the water, and every time he would come up Kairi would splash him. We finally let him go, and then it was just the two of us again. I gave her a smile when she called out:

"_Sora."_

"_What?"_

"_Look down at the water."_

_I looked down to notice:_

_I was wearing the exact same smile._

* * *

**Alrighty then! This is my first Kingdom Hearts fic, so tell me what you think! Tell me what you liked and what you think I need to improve on. Overall, I hoped you enjoyed it. This story really came out of nowhere, and I really enjoyed writing it. I started it in August and just finished it now which is weird seeing I never break for one-shots.**

**So yeah! Thanks for reading, and I hope you review!**


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